Thunderbolts #163.1

Hey look, it's another one of those Marvel.1 issues! Every time I see a new one of these I'm kind of surprised... I never thought these Marvel.1 issues would last as long as they have. Oh well, here's the review for the latest issue of Thunderbolts.

Thunderbolts #163.1:

Summary: Ghost, Luke Cage, Songbird and Mach-V(the last remaining T-Bolts) are hunting down the other Thunderbolts, the ones who turned traitor during the Fear Itself tie-in issues. In order to find the Bad Bolts, Luke and company decide to try to find Satana, since they figured it was Satana's magic that was hiding the Bad Bolts, while Mach-V tried to track down any piece of the Thunderbolts headquarters. Eventually the T-Bolts find a magical river and after Songbird wonders aloud where Satana was, the boat begins to move. How convenient! During the ride, Songbird falls asleep and relives many moments in T-Bolt history, from the formation of the team onward. Her dream ends with Baron Zemo proclaiming his love for her. Songbird wakes up with a start, and finds herself being carried away from Satana's magical river since Luke didn't trust it or it's funky magic. The three T-Bolts head back into their airplane just in time to get a message from Mach-V, who tells them he discovered a piece of the T-Bolt's base in Austria, but that it was much older then it should have been. The T-Bolt's all head to Avengers Mansion where Ghost and Mach-V realize that the Bad Bolts had somehow transported themselves to the past, thus explaining the old piece of the base they located. Valkyrie arrives at the Mansion to inquire about Gunna, and the T-Bolts tell Valkyrie that it seemed that Gunna had become lost in time. Valkyrie doesn't seem that troubled by this news since Gunna's axe apparently gives off magic that can be located anywhere in space, or yes, time.

Thoughts: Meh. This issue was okay, but it definitely didn't wow me or anything. It also didn't seem like a great jumping on point for new fans, since it basically continued the story that's been going on in this series for the past few issues. I guess Songbird's flashback was supposed to be for newbies, but it wasn't all that helpful, and the stuff at the end of the flashback/dream with Zemo just added confusion to it all. This issue basically can be summed up like this: Thanks to Valkyrie, the T-Bolts can hunt down their rogue teammates by latching onto the energy signature of Gunna's axe. And all of that information came out in the last two pages, making the rest of this comic a waste of time for me...

Score: 6 out of 10.The original Thunderbolts idea is still one of my all time favorite super-villain plans in comic book history.